When you start your hunt to buy a property in Brighton, make sure you register with Brand Vaughan – either through our website, or by phoning or visiting our branchs in Hove, Kemp Town and Preston Park. As new properties meeting your criteria come on the market, we’ll alert you by email and/or telephone. If you are interested in viewing a property, contact us quickly as our properties don’t hang around for long!

When, or ideally before, you start your property hunt, it’s worth making sure you have your finances in place. If you have money in savings or shares, make sure you can access them easily and that there aren’t any fixed timelines to withdrawal. If you need a mortgage, speak to our financial advisors Jim Maye & Daniel Grant who will work out with you what figure is likely to be available to you. Don’t forget to budget for any renovations and removals, plus stamp duty.

offer making

Once we’ve found a property for you that you like, discuss with us the offer you would like to make. We will ask you to confirm how you intend to fund the purchase of your property and availability of the deposit (usually 10% of purchase price). If you already have a mortgage arranged, we will ask you to provide an agreement in principle (AIP) document and we will require the details of your financial advisor so that we can clarify the time frame that will be involved for processing your application. If you are buying without a mortgage (a ‘cash buyer’) you will also need to provide evidence of finance.

what happens next?

the survey

If you are buying with a mortgage, a survey of the property will be booked by a surveyor on behalf of the mortgage lender. This is to protect their interests by valuing the property and highlighting any major defects that would negatively affect the security of their loan..

the mortgage offer

Once your mortgage lender has received the survey report and are satisfied the loan amount is realistic given the valuation, they will issue a mortgage offer to your solicitor.

the conveyancing

Once an offer has been agreed between you and the seller, we will contact each party’s solicitors to confirm the details of the sale. Offers are not legally binding until contracts have been exchanged. From now until exchange, you will need to be in close communication with your solicitor and our Sale Progression Manager will also be in regular contact with you and your solicitor, as well as the the sellers and their solicitor, and the solicitor of any other people in your chain to make sure that your purchase goes through and on time.

exchange of contracts

Exchanging contracts is the moment when the sale becomes legally binding on both sides. You can only exchange once you have paid a cleared deposit (usually 10% of the purchase price) to your solicitor’s account. Your solicitor will tell you and us when contracts have been exchanged. The completion date is then set by mutual agreement and is also contractually binding.